Anthropologists studying a collection of ancient Scythian artifacts retrieved during excavations at sites in Ukraine have made a gruesome discovery, according to newly published research.
The multi-institutional team reports that two samples of the ancient Scythian artifacts in question, consisting of small bits of leather, were determined to be made from human skin. The findings, reported in PLOS ONE, confirm ancient accounts of the practices of Scythian warriors, namely those of the Greek historian Herodotus.
Largely a nomadic group who resided in the region now recognized as the Pontic-Caspian steppe between around 700 BCE and 300 BCE, the Scythians remain somewhat mysterious, despite the accounts left to history by Herodotus of their ferociousness in battle.
In The Persian Wars (book IV), the famed “Father of History” presents us with a grizzly account of the behavior of Scythian warriors regarding their fallen enemies.
“Many make themselves cloaks, like the sheepskins of our peasants,” Herodotus wrote, describing how Scythian warriors “make of the skin, which is stripped off with the nails hanging to it, a covering for their quivers.”
“Some even flay the entire body of their enemy, and, stretching it upon a frame, carry it about with them wherever they ride,” Herodotus explains. “Such are the Scythian customs with respect to scalps and skins.”
In their analysis, researchers Luise Ørsted Brandt, Meaghan Mackie, Marina Daragan, Matthew J. Collins, and Margarita Gleba sought evidence for the claims Herodotus made about the Scythians.
Hellbound and Down 